Hello everybody here is my first AH published here,
I really wanted to write an alternate history about Burgundian inheritance, but after i started working on it I saw that it was close to The Land of Wine and Beer : a Franco-Burgundian TL.However, there isn't the same point of divergence; here it's in 1477. After the death of Charles of Burgundy, Louis XI will focus more on diplomacy and will succeed to convince Burgundians to conclude the planned wedding between his son and Mary of Burgundy. Since it looks like The Land of Wine and Beer, I discussed with DracoLazarus before to explain that my AH will be different and I didn't want to think that I plagiate his work and asked for his agreement to post my AH, and he accepted as long as there are real differences, which you will see progressively in this history. (for example a harsh buterfly effect for Austria, a quicker war, a diplomatic wedding) Here the PoD will be focused in a diplomatic move.
Chapitre I Return of Burgundian apanage
Louis Xi often asked himself this question. If Charles le Hardi died before him, what should he do ?
But today was a different day, the death of the duke of Burgundy had taken place, and the future of France would be dictated by his choice.
During many decades, Louis XI had protected his kingdom from his opponent rival Charles le Téméraire. This fight between the two members of the House of Valois was a conflict between two opposite kinds of rulers. The Duke of Burgundy was a chivalrous monarch and represented feudality. Meanwhile, Louis XI was the king of bourgeois that would inspire Machiavelli and be called the universal spider, or evil genius. In the beginning Louis XI was a turbulent prince, but he was already working in his field and with the time he became more and more patient and even the Milanese admired his talent for diplomacy as he patiently harassed his opponent.
The French king knew that his army, even if it was strong, couldn't really take on the Burgundian Duke alone, but he also knew the weakness of Burgundy, because he had lived some time here when he run away of his father, so he funded Burgundian opponent helped by the Duke's attitude that pissed off many people. Alone le Téméraire fighted day after day against revolts, Swiss, et caetera, and after many battles, tired, the Duke died miserably at the door of the Nancy who was going to offer him the Duchy of Lorraine and the title of King that he always wanted.
But unfortunately for Louis XI, it wasn't over, what will happen ? Charles had one daughter, Marie of Burgundy, that will inherit of all his territory, and he knows that she wants to marry with Habsburg King of the Romans Maximillian, that will thus become Emperor, it would be disastrous, he will lose surely definitively territory in French field, and get a new opponent stronger than before, so he needed to take his territory back with the help of law. Charles le Téméraire, that should have respected the king of France for his territory in France, was never a good vassal, as everybody knew, so he could launch a posthumous process against him and confiscate its land. That would give him casus belli to take back his French territories and get that much stronger to fight the Habsburgs, but he also thought of another idea. If Mary of Burgundy married his son Charles, the two prosperous realms would merge and become a prosperous and stronger kingdom that would not fear any permanent threat, the problem being that Burgundian people and Mary would not accept unless he managed it really well. He could persuade Burgundians to accept his wedding and let them persuade Mary to make the right choice, as along the course of many decades he had learnt, during those decades he had woven its web, which this time crushed his opponent. But it could be more, he could weave his web longer and add the Burgundian possessions in his field by this wedding
But he had to be careful, it could not work, these possession could split apart and France would be threatened again so he should also take back some territories to weaken the duchy of Burgundy in the future and to help with negotiation.
Here will start the PoD, that will happen in the next chapter. For now, you just saw him take his decision.